In particular, the invention relates to resistance heaters which have an important though not exclusive application to the heat treatment of metallic members which have undergone other operations which can affect metallurgical properties. One example of such a metallic member is a sleeve employed to repair a breach in a tube/tube plate weld of a heat exchanger by being secured in the relevant tube in a position to bridge the breach. The securing may be an explosive weld of one end of the sleeve to the bore of the tube plate, and a braze joint of the other end of the sleeve to the relevant tube. It is necessary to heat treat the sleeve after the making of the joints in order to restore the necessary properties to the braze-affected joints so as to ensure that design life can be expected. The braze is effected at a temperature of the order of 1150.degree. C. for about four minutes and the braze bond is typically about 40 mm in length. Heat treatment however is at a lower temperature of the order of 750.degree. C. but for a longer period, typically one hour. A longer portion than the braze needs to be treated however, typically 150 mm.
The braze heating is performed in one preferred prior art system by an induction probe inserted within the sleeve and accessed from the tube plate bore. However, such probes pose problems of adequate cooling and are expensive. Employment of such probes for heat treatment with its lower temperature and longer period would be wasteful.